COLLINSVILLE – A first-half brace from Payton Federmann (two goals), and a brilliant second-half goal from Brynn Miracle helped give Edwardsville a 3-1 win over O’Fallon in the IHSA Class 3A Moline sectional semifinal match Tuesday evening at Collinsville’s Kahok Stadium.
The win advances the Tigers to Friday’s sectional final at Moline High School, where they’ll play Minooka, a 1-0 winner over Bradley Bourbonnais.
The Tigers jumped out in front early, and the thinking was that whoever scored first would have a big advantage in the match.
“Absolutely,” said Edwardsville head coach Abby Federmann. “We kind of decided that whoever scored the first goal would go on to win, and I’m really happy that Payton scored in the first six minutes.”
The experienced Edwardsville defense played a big role as well, and it, as well as the entire team, played very well.
“I think the experience in our backline played to our advantage,” Federmann said. “We had a good effort from everyone, we were able to capitalize on O’Fallon’s mistakes, and everyone really played well.”
The Tigers struck first in the sixth minute, as Federmann was able to gain a turnover deep in the O’Fallon third of the pitch and shot the ball past Panther goalie Grace Vincent to make it 1-0 for Edwardsville.
Both sides played mainly in the midfield after that, with the Panthers having an opportunity off a free kick in the 19th minutes, but the ball was cleared by the Tigers defense. In the 24th minute, Edwardsville doubled its lead when Federmann got the ball, dribbled in, and hit a shot from distance that got over Vincent’s hands and into the upper right corner of the net to make it 2-0.
The Panthers did have a couple of chances right after, but Rachel Hensley was there to stop the opportunities. In the 34th minute, Anna Chor got in a very good cross in, but the shot went wide, and in the 36th minute, Abby Burkthalter tried a shot from distance that went off the crossbar. In the 38th minute, Chor sent in Olivia Ori on a brilliant through ball, but the referee’s assistants flag was up for offside, negating the goal. The half ended 2-0 in favor of the Tigers.
O’Fallon had a great chance in the 44th minute, as Jennai Duggar had a shot that was on target, but Hensley was there to make the save. One minute later, Rileigh Kuhns got in a crossing shot that was labeled for inside the near post, but Vincent was there to make the save, keeping the score 2-0. In the 46th minute, Aubrey Mister had a nice run, but her shot went straight to Hensley to keep the score 2-0.
In the 50th minute, Miracle got the ball, took off on a great run, and fired the all straight into the back of the net to make the score 3-0. The Panthers responded with a pair of chances, but Hensley stopped both. Both teams then had chances that were stopped, and in the 65th minute, Sidney Christopher settled a ball during a scramble in front of the Edwardsville goal and shot the ball that just got by the inside of the near post into the net to make the score 3-1. The goal gave O’Fallon some momentum, and the Panthers had two big chances, most notably a throw-in near the Edwardsville box in the 67th minute that saw a shot ring off the crossbar and cleared, keeping the score 3-1.
In the final 10 minutes, the Panthers went into all-out attack, and in the 71st minute, a shot off a free kick just went past the near post, three minutes later, another chance went wide, and in the 75th, Avery Christopher had a good run, but Hensley was there to make the stop. The Tiger defense held off O’Fallon the rest of the way to preserve the 3-1 win.
The Tigers are now 15-8-0 and advance to Friday’s sectional final against Minooka, which is set for a 6 p.m. kickoff. Federmann hopes that the Tigers’ momentum keeps going forward, and knows that the key to the sectional final will be Edwardsville playing their game.
“I’m hoping that we keep this momentum going forward,” Federmann said. “I don’t know much about Minooka, so we just need to play our game. We’ll keep playing our game, and it’s been very successful so far, and we hope it’ll stay successful on Friday.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
